Flashback Product of the Week: 1959 “Topps” You’ll Die Laughing

Its almost Halloween, so I think I’ll mix things up for the next few Flashback Product of the Week posts.

In 1959 Topps released a product called You’ll Die Laughing.  It features a 66-card set and contains some gruesome images of monsters and all types of creatures.  By today’s standards, you probably won’t think the artwork is all that bad, but in ’59 it was a hot topic.  Before this set was released, Topps anticipated parents would get upset over the artwork, thats why you won’t find the Topps name anywhere on the cards.  Instead Topps went under the name Bubble Inc. in order to avoid bad publicity and they added funny captions to each card hoping to soften their image.  Topps was right, parents didn’t like the graphic images and the bad publicity actually helped drive more sales.  PSA actually has a really good article about this set.

In today’s hobby, one of the most popular and creative companies producing card sets based on monsters would be Monsterwax.  If your into this kind of stuff, I highly suggest you check them out.  They truly take their time when putting a set together.  Their products are very limited.  For example, the card pictured below comes from their Shock Stories set.  Monsterwax only produced 1,000 boxes.  Collectors can look for a sketch card inside each box as well as a 3D card inside each pack.